THERESA May will tonight tell European leaders to give up any hope of reversing Brexit.

She will use her first EU summit appearance to give her toughest warning yet. The Prime Minister is said to be determined to crush any lingering desire among some of her counterparts to force UK voters to think again.

Over dinner in Brussels, she will tell the 27 other EU leaders that the referendum result is irreversible.

“The British people have made a decision and it is right and proper that the decision is honoured,” she is expected to say.

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Mrs May’s stark message follows speculation among diplomats in Brussels that Brexit could be watered down or even cancelled altogether.

The idea that the voters’ decision will never be delivered is circulating within the EU, according to a Downing Street source. But he added: “The Prime Minister has been absolutely clear many times that is not the case.”

Government insiders say some European leaders are still privately asking Mrs May what her strategy is for avoiding a rupture with the bloc. EU chiefs are expected to do their utmost to try to play down the issue of Britain’s departure during the summit.

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the Prime Minister is expected to make the statements over dinner in Brussels

Mrs May has been granted only a brief slot during the starter course of the summit dinner to set out her approach to Brexit. Officials expect little discussion of the issue, with the EU migration crisis the main item on the agenda. A letter from EU Council President Donald Tusk inviting leaders to the summit dismissed the issue in one sentence.

The priority now has got to be looking to the future

Theresa May is expected to say

It said only: “The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will present the current state of affairs in the country.”

But the Downing Street source said Mrs May planned to use her first speech to a gathering of EU leaders to finally disabuse them of doubts that Britain will leave.

“It is an opportunity for her to say that directly to all leaders, precisely because we do need now to all be focusing on the future,” the source said.

Mrs May will however tell the summit that Britain wants to remain a close partner of the EU after leaving.

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“The Prime Minister will make clear she doesn’t want the process of the EU leaving to be damaging for the rest of the EU,” the Downing Street source said.

“We want to build a future partnership that cements Britain as a close, broad and deep partner for the EU.”

Mrs May will insist that quitting the EU does not mean Britons are “turning our backs on Europe”.

But she will seek to be “realistic and honest about the scale of the challenge” of delivering Brexit.

At Westminster yesterday, the Prime Minister appeared to suggest that the exit negotiations could last longer than the two-year period set out in Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, the legal mechanism for leaving the bloc.

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Mrs May insisted that Brexit does not mean 'turning our backs on Europe'

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, she told MPs: “There are going to be lengthy negotiations over the course of the two years and more.”

Aides said her remark reflected the fact that Article 50 allowed the two-year process to be extended if needed. Mrs May told MPs that Britain would regain control over migration from the EU.

She said: “The vote on June 23 was a vote to ensure that we had control of movement of people from the EU into the UK.”

But she added: “We want the best possible access for businesses, for trading in goods and services, and for operating within the European market. “That is what the Government will be aiming for, and we will be ambitious in that.”

She promised: “Parliament will have its say. There are going to be lengthy negotiations and Parliament will have its say in a whole variety of ways.”